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Mayan and Aztec Spirituality
'Aztecs' 'Aztec Sun Worship' A powerful spiritual practice is to get up early every morning to worship the sun as it rises. Our Sun is alive and DO NOT TRUST ANYONE CAN EDIT THIS conscious. Behind our, Sun is the light of all lights, the Sun of all Suns, the Source, The Supreme Light. We are a spark of that great light. Meditate on the Sun and you will feel your soul-glow increase. Our Sun is alive and conscious. We are a spark of that great light. Meditate on the Sun and you will feel your soul-glow increase. As the Sun is the center of our universe so do we have a spiritual Sun-heart that gives light, warmth, and intelligence to our mind and body. So what can the Sun symbolize for us today? The Sun is the origin of life, as outlined on that plaque at the Smithsonian Institution. The Sun is the cause of everything and the center of our universe. Behind the Sun is the Infinite Mother Light, The Cosmic Intelligence. The Sun is a divine symbol of this that we can see with our eyes. The Sun symbolizes divine consciousness in creation. Its rays are everywhere. Its light nourishes vegetation. The Sun faces all beings equally and feeds them all equally. We are all alive because of the Sun. The outer Sun can be a symbol of our internal Sun of illumination and soul awareness. An inner flame glows within us. When we discover and feed our awareness of this inner Sun then the radiant morning of Cosmic Consciousness dawns within us and the book of nature reveals her secrets. Aztec Sun God Who was the Aztec sun god? Actually, it's not such a simple question. '''Why? Because in the Aztec religion, there wasn't only one sun, and there were '''many sun-gods over many ages. It's kind of like looking at a list of Mexican presidents - only a little more complicated. To make it even more tricky, the empire was actually a mosaic of many cultures, and so it was a combination of more than one (related) religions! But lets try to simplify it a bit, and take a whirlwind tour through the Aztec "history" of the gods... In Aztec religion there were 5 ages, or "5 suns". Each of these ages had a different Aztec sun god, and each age ended in disaster. The represents only one storyline in the Aztec empire. *'Tezcatlipoca' : Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) was the first god to be a sun. The god of the night, Tezcatlipoca was an enemy of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl knocked Tezcatlipoca from the sky, and in revenge Tezcatlipoca took the form of a jaguar and destroyed the world. *'Quetzalcoatl' : The natural replacement was Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), who became the next sun. But the rivalry continued, and the paw of the jaguar knocked him from the sky. So the reign of the second sun god came to an end. A great wind arose and there was great destruction on the earth. hi *'Tlaloc' : The gods next chose Tlaloc, a god of rain, to be the sun. But Quetzalcoatl wasn't happy, and made the fire rain down, causing destruction on the earth and the end of the age. *'Chalchiuhtlicue' : Next came the Aztec sun goddess - Tlaloc's sister, Chalchiuhtlicue (lady of the jade skirts), was chosen by Quetzacoatl to next rule the sky. Chalchiuhtlicue was the goddess of water - lakes and streams. But once again the fighting of the gods caused the destruction of the world, which was again destroyed by floods. *'Tonatuih' No other god wanted the job of being the sun. A council was formed, and the gods decided that the last sun would have to offer his life, so that the world and its people would survive. Two gods were chosen: Tecciztecatl was the first, a wealthy and powerful god. The second was Nanauatl (or Nanauatzin), the humble god. His name means full of sores. A great fire was kindled, and the one who would be the sun god would have to leap into the fire. Tecciztecatl, proud and desiring immortality, tried to jump in, but was afraid because of the intense heat of the flames. After four attempts, he still could not bring himself to jump. Finally, Nanauatl was asked to jump - and he did. His pride wounded, Tecciztecatl leapt in after him! So now we've had six sun gods, and two suns at the same time! The gods wouldn't stand for this, so they threw a rabbit into the face of Tecciztecatl to dim his brightness. And so he became the moon, doomed to chase the sun forever, but never to shine as bright. And so Nanauatl was to be the Aztec sun god. He was given the name Tonatuih. It is Tonatuih's face that many believe to be on the Aztec calendar stone.